Before now, the platoon had stayed out of major urban environments, but now they would have to make their way into the great, local metropolis of Stave Harbour (population 3571).
Pan was sitting beside Goat Fjord and staring into the water. The cool, clear water of the fjord stared back at her. This was no metaphor for anything. A pair of golden eyes were looking up at her and she could not look away. A mission transmitted itself into her head. There were no voices involved, just an instantaneous knowledge that Tiger Troop needed to go to Stave Harbour. Ever since the thing that claimed to be a god had entered her mind, this sort of thing had started happening to her. She was not keen on it.
"Tiger Troop, we're heading into Stave Harbour. It is apparently the local big city, so we need to be a bit careful. Our primary mission is to eliminate a target, who has been stirring up the locals and getting the dumbasses and shitwits to join their cult. Our secondary mission is to scout the city. Now that we have pacified part of this area, we need to make more contacts and embed ourselves with the locals, but we need to know what we are getting into first."
At the edge of the city, Tiger Troop paused to check their kit and to deploy. The L.T. had approved the mission and given them extra ammo plus the support of the platoon mortar. Apparently, the L.T. also felt that this mission was important. Ahead among the city streets, strangely robed people could be seen slowly marching with feral purpose towards the troop. A group of archers was ready to support them.
"Corporal Adeyemi, your team will focus on scouting the objectives on our right flank. Lance-Corporal Bonolo, with me. We're going to get that complete cult. He must be with that large group somewhere."
The two teams moved out on their separate mission. As A Team advanced to the first scouting objective, B Team moved into cover and opened fire at the cultists. The cultists advanced unafraid (or braindead!) while the archers moved towards a firing position.
The din of the fusillades from B Team drowned out Pan's first attempt to radio in a mortar strike on the cultists, but B Team's fire was somewhat accurate and several fell.
Arrows flew towards Tiger Troop but A Team had adopted a defensive approach to advancing on the second scouting objective. As Adeyemi moved out to scout, the rest of the team opened fire on the archers, quickly whittling them down to a single man, who showed no fear and continued to shoot arrows at them right up until he was cut down. Pan's further attempts to call in a strike were more effective although the mortar stonk required correction. However, once on target, the cultists were felled and did not rise again. Pan checked and saw that the primary target had been killed.
"Target down. I repeat, target down. Fall back to the RP, Tiger Troop."
Tiger Troop did not need telling twice. B Team fell back quickly to the RP. A Team had been further forward, so it took them longer to fall all the way back. Pan remained on station ready to call in more fire if needed.
As B Team reached the RP, a small group of cultists emerged from a building behind them. Their droning cries wafting across to the soldiers on the light breeze. Firing a few shots to discourage them, Pan retreated to join her troop and led them back to camp. The small number of remaining cultists would not be a threat to the locals and now Stave Harbour (population 3543) owed the platoon a favour.
Conclusion
That mission went way too smoothly. I was a bit worried that the cultists would swamp Tiger Troop, but it turned out that our heroes could stand back and just shoot. Having both fire support and logistical support was probably a deciding factor here. Between the shooting and the mortar, the baddies did not even get close to hurting any of the soldiers. The archers were another question, but their shooting was woefully inaccurate in the end.
The troop scored the main objective and scouted one of the two secondary objectives. This was enough for a victory.
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